PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Dreamliner preflight error, ground and tech crew?
Old 30th May 2022, 22:23
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Tom Sawyer
 
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Originally Posted by PoppaJo
Bit like the Malaysian A330, engineer fails to remove items, however post that we do have multiple layers of responsibility from others to try and pickup on these issues post that. Do not rely on ground operators to pickup on these things, it's a bonus if they do,
I don't believe the Roo has engineers dispatching flights from the stand anymore, however whoever conducted the preflight here, I assume SO, failed miserably
As an Engineer - it is not "a bonus" if we pick these things up, it is our job! As the aircraft had possibly been in parking mode for a few days, all the aircraft's ports and probes had been covered as per the AMM aircraft parking requirements. These ports on the engine do not have specific blanks manufactured for them, so using tape and plastic sheeting or preferably plastic gauze cut to size is the normal approved method, as it is for a number of other positions on the 787, including some about half way up the fin. When I have covered these ports I usually leave a tail of tape hanging down to make it a bit more obvious, or an extended line of tape up the cowling if the weather outlook is not good. The ports on the fan cowl are easy to miss as they are a long way down in the same way that fan cowl latches have been missed in previous well known incidents, it just takes a bit of effort and awareness that they are there. The workpack job card to re-activate the aircraft from parking would probably just had a generic "Remove all blanks and covers as per AMM 09-xx-xx" statement whereas a list of positions with a signature required for each one would probably have been more of a failsafe.

Essentially, the engineer who carried out and/or supervised the jobcard failed. Whoever carried out the Daily check failed. Whoever carried out the the EDTO pre-flight/transit check failed. The operating crew member who did the walk round failed. Whoever carried out the final ground walk round failed. The only defence for all this is that around the time of the incident the industry was at reduced manpower and workload levels so there was a lot of "de-skilling" and knowledge fade in the system, and in general, parking and re-activating aircraft in a normal line maintenance environment is not a common procedure. Luckily it was not a primary air data system.
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